The bipartisan panel may need at least a few days to decide whether to recommend acceptance of the accord negotiated by attorneys for both sides, the source said.

Democrats have pushed for a deal to avoid a trial of the veteran lawmaker that they fear could become a political circus and hurt their bid to retain control of the House in the November elections.

The review of the “tentative agreement” is being conducted by an eight-member adjudicatory subcommittee of the House Ethics Committee.

Rangel, 80, had sought a deal before the hearing, but his new goal is to get one well before his scheduled September trial, an aide to the congressman said.

Once the subcommittee has decided whether to accept the deal, it will send its recommendation to the full 10-member ethics committee: five Democrats and five Republicans.

The committee traditionally accepts the recommendations of its nonpartisan staff on plea-bargain agreements, a congressional aide said.

Rangel stepped down in March as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee after the ethics panel, in a separate case, admonished him for corporate-sponsored trips in 2007 and 2008 that violated House gifts rules.

Democrats won control of the House in 2006, promising to rid the chamber of corruption after a series of Republican ethical problems, including an influence-peddling scandal that resulted in prison time for a top Capitol Hill lobbyist.

Republicans have seized on the charges against Rangel as evidence that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have failed on their promise to “drain the swamp.”